In the 1950s dozens of DU students were unwittingly subjected to CIA mind control experiments through research conducted by graduate student Alden B. Sears. Sears sought to discover whether individuals who had been hypnotized could recall events that occurred while they were incapacitated. It seems historical involvement between DU and Operation MK-ULTRA could be afoot, so what are they hiding?
Little is known about Sears. It is still being determined whether he knew how his research would be used or if the CIA was involved. He researched hypnosis and mind control and was funded by the mysterious Geshickter Foundation for Medical Research, a grant now known to be funded by the CIA, to which he would send the results of his experiments.
His actual publication on the topic is nearly impossible to access outside of private archives, but on the only page publicly accessible he states “an experiment was needed which would provide a comparison of hypnotic and conscious recall…” and goes on to explain the set up for a demonstrative table the public is unable to see without paying $300 to access it for 30 days or attending a university with special approval. Despite the experiments originating on DU’s campus, DU students are unable to access Sears’ work through the university.
Thy hypnosis experiments conducted on DU students appear to be connected to MK-ULTRA through the Geshickter Foundation. This operation was based on the fear that the Soviet Union was using mind control to control its soldiers and citizens, and that Americans would be next. In an effort to combat “brain warfare,” the CIA determined it needed to develop mind control tactics of its own. Hypnosis experiments on college students were the least of it. They performed hours of LSD-based experiments on mentally-impaired children, soldiers and incarcerated people. They used people they saw as “expendable” to test the limits of the human mind, often creating lasting psychological problems.
Even now, almost 70 years later, it is incredibly difficult to find any information about the DU mind control experiments, everything kept under careful wraps. Aside from an archived New York Times article in 1977, and whatever remains of Sears’ experiments, the details of DU’s brief time in alleged collaboration with the CIA remains a mystery.
